Political commentary from the LA Times

President Obama narrowly escapes attack by rat or something

First, there were the gate-crashing Salahis who got by the crack White House protocol and security forces.

Now, there's the rat. Or vole. Or some kind of rodent, who crashed a Thursday White House event in the Rose Garden.

Prof. Obama was droning on about the joyous Senate passage of his latest galactic reform scheme, this one to straighten out the shady ways of the nefarious Wall Street money people who financed so much of his $750 million campaign war-chest in 2007-08.

Suddenly, the attacker burst out of the bushes from, wouldn't you know, Obama's right side.

As the thunder of countless clicking cameras competed with the oblivious president, the dubiously dangerous, if terrified creature abandoned his assault. And before anyone could recite his Miranda rights, scurried into the enfolding safety and security of nearby government bushes on the liberal Democrat's left.

No shots were fired. Is that creature now FROTUS?

The abortive assault on the ex-state senator recalled a 1979 tale recounted by another Democrat, President Jimmy Carter, who described being attacked by an amphibious swamp rabbit while fishing in a boat. No shots fired then either.